O Holy Night Takes on a New Meaning

Ok, so I have to ask. Why did no one tell us until we got BACK that it takes babies 2 weeks for their internal "sleep clock" to be adjusted to a new Timezone? Last night was our fourth night with almost no sleep. She is 14 hours ahead of us. At 1:00-1:30am she wakes up like clock work and gives us no rest. Nothing works. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh - - - - - - help us!!! O Holy Night sure took on a new meaning this Christmas.

One of the other couples who adopted from China told us they had the same problem but that last night their little girl finally slept from 10pm to 8am so we do have some hope.

Christmas was good. Everyone is enjoying meeting and spending time with Noelle. Today Jamie took Noelle to her initial physical examination. She is now 18.1 lbs at the 27th percentile and 28.5" at the 70th percentile. So, it looks like she could be tall for a Chinese girl (some of our family knows that is something we prayed about since Maddie and Daddy are so tall). Dr. Mary our pediatrician was very happy with her and said that for coming from an orphanage especially she looked really good. She said she had good muscle tone and that she was surpised that Noelle was not further behind developmentally. She said Noelle was dealing with a lot of change including environment, people, and language so it could take a bit more time to catch up developmentally, possibly around 2 months.

Maddie is really enjoying her little sister and keeps waking her up during nap time to play with her. She is really fascinated by her and loves her so much. Maddie really gets close to Noelle's face and just laughs and laughs at her. I like the age separation because Maddie is really self-sufficient and can even help us a bit!

Maddie isn't jealous which is something we have prayed about for a year. When we got back we took both girls to lunch (Tex-Mex finally- hurrayy!!) and talked about being a sister with Maddie. We said, "Maddie whenever someone gets a new baby sister or a baby brother they are really happy and a little bit sad as well. Everyone wants to know that Mommy and Daddy love them as much as their new brother or sister." We told Maddie that we love her just as much and that if we hold, kiss, play with, or read to Noelle it is because she needs that because she has never had someone to do that before. I said, "Maddie wouldn't it be sad if Noelle never had a mommy and daddy to hold her?" She agreed and it seemed to bring things home for her.
I said, "Maddie if you have some of those feelings I want you to know that all of us have felt that and those feelings go away and you just get to enjoy your new sister ok?" She said ok.

I said Maddie there are three things you can do if you feel sad:
- First, you need to pray to Jesus and ask him what you should do and ask him to help you. Daddy prays about everything - even stuff like this and Jesus always helps me.
- Second, you can let Mommy and Daddy know that you are feeling like this. We love you and it helps to talk about it.
- And, if Noelle is getting hugged, kissed, or played with you can just join in the fun- push on in!

Thank you Lord for Maddie and Noelle and thank you for coming to save all of us. We do remember your birthday this season. We love you.

I'm going back to work tomorrow, unsure of what I will find. Time to pray and trust in God which is what the Lord has taught me over these past several years.

Love you guys and Merry Christmas!

Home at Last!

We are home with Noelle in time to celebrate "The First Noel"! We did not plan Noelle's name in correlation with the holiday so its a fun tie-in!

The plane flights back had us up for about 28 hours but we were so thankful to the Lord because Noelle slept for 10 hours straight on our longest flight, from Tokyo to DFW and overall gave us no problems. We had bought her a seat so we made devised a way to make an acceptable "pallet" style bed for her.

The plane rides themselves were rough. We had a 3:42 minute flight from Guangzhou to Tokyo and then a 7-hour layover in Tokyo. The only challenge on the flight to Tokyo was some drunk Japanese guy was threatening passengers so a couple of us guys had to throw down on him-alright I'm kidding.

We actually paid $75 to get all of us into the American Airlines Admirals Club so that we had comfortable time of free drinks, leather seats, and some peace and quiet. It was amazing and we felt pretty much human for the layover. Noelle did great.

We really felt everyone's prayers throughout the trip. There were so many beauracratic processes that could have broken down, so many worse health issues we could have had, and so many unknown issues we could have encountered but the Lord was with us and your prayers made a big difference. Many thanks!!

The ride in coach was tough. You can't blame them but the people in front of us put their chairs in our laps by the time we reached cruising altitude. I was so close to the woman in front of me with her seat down for so long I felt like I owed her alimony when we landed.

When we got to the airport we first went through customs which is what you do when you enter any country. The line was probably 45 minutes long for regular citizens but short for the "Immigrant Visas" which is the line we got to stand in. We delivered to the officer a bunch of paperwork the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou had prepared for us, we showed him our U.S. passports, and Noelle's Chinese passport that had the Immigrant Visa stapled into it by the U.S. Consulate. He took all the paperwork, stamped it, and kept it. Then, he stamped her Chinese passport on top of the Immigrant Visa. There were no other papers that he gave us for her concerning citizenship or anything which bugged me. I would like to have had a certificate or something. He explained that in one year we would receive a green card for Noelle which would be mailed to the address we had given on all the paperwork we turned in. After all this was done he processed our entrance into the country as well. From what we were told in Guangzhou she is now a U.S. citizen. Praise the Lord!

The last process we will do is "re-adopt" Noelle. From what I hear this can be done for ~$1,000 or so. There are lawyers in Texas who specialize in this process. Most families who adopt internationally do this so their children will get a Texas birth certificate and will be adopted in Texas. This basically gives her some legal protections and makes things easier for her when entering school and various other things. This isn't something we have rush to get done but I hope to get it done in 2006.

When we arrived out of the baggage claim area into a very large reception area near the exit doors we were greeted by a TON of people. It was so awesome and overwhelming. Maddie screamed out and ran toward us. Seeing everyone cheering for us, waving signs, waving balloons, and seeing Maddie run toward us was too much for Jamie and I and we both had some happy tears and some deep sighs. I picked up Maddie and showed her Noelle. Maddie was so happy she just laughed and laughed and looked closely at her new baby sister. It was overwhelming for her to get her new sister as well as see her parents she had not seen for 16 days! Thanks so much to everyone who was able to meet us at the airport! We then had a few family members come back to the house because Uncle Jon and Aunt Lisa had cooked ribs- wow, awesome!

Maddie was giddy with excited smiles all night. She slept with Noelle and mom in bed and in the morning she woke up at 5:45 and interlocked hands with Noelle and said, "Mommy, I'm just so happy I can't stop smiling." Precious.

I took some pics of them playing together. Noelle LOVES Maddie and loves everyone. She's been great and has been performing for everyone, pretty funny.

We're outta here!

It is 9:41pm on Wednesday in Guangzhou, China - 7:41am on Wednesday in Fort Worth, Texas USA. We have been packing gradually for 3 days so we are now fully packed. We have to have our bags in the hall at 5:00am and then we meet in the lobby to depart at 5:30am. Our flight leaves at 8:15am via China Southern Air (Chinese redneck airline) for Tokyo Japan (Norita airport).

We then have a 7-hour layover but we are going to pay the $75 (total for our family) to get into the American Airlines Admiral's Club so we can at least be comfortable. We will also have Internet access so we can use Skpe VOIP phone service to call home over the Internet. I don't remember if I mentioned this but we have made dozens of calls with this from our laptop simply by using Skype and a microphone. If you call someone with Skype the call over the Internet is free. We have been using "Skype - Out" which calls regular phones and even internationally it is only .021 per minute. We haven't quite used $20.00 in these 15 days. Cool- and it is clearer than a cell phone.

We are on Flight #60 from Tokyo to DFW and arrive at 3:40pm Texas time on Thursday. There are several friends and family that will be meeting us at the airport which is fun although we may look a little "nuked" after being up for 27 hours and traveling around the world.

Hopefully our luggage makes it ok. We bought so many things we had to buy 2 suitcases to bring everything back. The 2 suitcases were only $70 total and one of them is good quality with hard sides. Many Americans end up buying cheap luggage to bring things home. When you are adopting from China and know you want to be able to show your daughter things and have some Chinese things around you buy all you can. Its one of those things that is easy to over-due but we have heard first-hand from more than one couple that if you are too conservative there can be a lot of regret since you can't just go back whenever you want. However, there are some websites where you can buy Chinese items. You will pay 5 times as much but it is an option. One of them is: www.chinasprout.com. They apparently have a pretty good selection of Chinese things.

We are so happy to be going home. We miss Maddie and our family and friends SO much. It has been really hard to be away so long. This is one of those things that is a rich and wonderful experience that we are thankful for but it got to be too long.

Jamie drove this adoption, lets be clear. She gave me tasks which I did and she did many tasks as well but she did all the research, all the reading, and all the forms. She drove a hard timeline or this process could have been even longer than the 15 months it took. I told her after we had the swearing-in ceremony yesterday how proud I was of her and how thankful I was for her. I am just not wired to be good at this sort of thing and I really leaned on her. She did fantastic and I'll never forget it. Great job babe!

We love you all- see you tomorrow - hey the pics you take of us looking "nuked" in the airport can be used for bribery later on- so fire away!

Hey, by the way I took a picture of the cover of a White Swan menu where I found some "gourmet" items. Can you tell me what is on the menu picture near the right side of the dish? Ya'll gotta love a little caterpillar with your steak!

May I have some "Scabled Eggs" please?

Some of the cultural differences we have experienced while in China have been funny and so have some of the mis-spellings. For example, there is a sign in the breakfast room that says "Scabled Eggs"- wow, I don't know what those are but I don't want em'! Most of the Chinese that we meet can say a few words in English and many can speak in decent broken English if not better. I have learned over the past 2 weeks to not give a lot of detail when I am speaking with them because when I do they become confused pretty fast. I have found that imitating the local attempt at English is what they are most comfortable with. So, I am adding the word "yes" or "ok" to every sentence because this is what they do. So, I will be talking with someone about some gift item I am negotiating for and even where it doesn't make sense I will say "yes" to let them know things are ok and we are communicating well. So, here is a sample sentence, "No, that is too much how about 40 Yuan - yes?"

Some of the other interesting things are that each hotel floor has an assistant to help with the elevator or to give any directions that are needed. Also, the main lobbies all have people in uniform to give directions. And, you can hardly open a door here by yourself- there are people to do that as well. Very interesting and amazing service. You are swarmed at breakfast with people to help you in the restaurant.

I gave my Bible away to my guide yesterday which is illegal to do. I love it. I also love that he was interested in it. May the Lord do a work in his life! He's a great guy and we are going to try to keep in touch. He said it is illegal to buy a Bible unless you buy one from a State run church. Unfortunately they alter the content so it is not really a reliable source of truth as a pure translation that has not been tampered with. My Bible is NIV so it should be a decent translation for him as well as a readable one.

All done except the walk down the ramp

Today we went to the U.S. Consulate and were sworn in. Technically we should have had to sit with someone at the consulate and be interviewed and fill out paperwork but due to the volume (The huge room was full of adopting families- maybe over 80 families- the consulate officer who welcomed the swearing-in group said that China adoption is the biggest type of international adoption in the United States with over 7,000 this year and all of them go through Guangzhou at the end.) they now just swear you in. You basically swear that you have filled out all paperwork to the best of your ability and that it is accurate. Its not that you are swearing to be a good parent etc as we had thought. We also got the U.S. Immigration Visa attached to her Chinese passport. Since both Jamie and I came to China to get Noelle and not just one of us the benefit is that when she reaches the U.S. "Port of Call" she instantly becomes a U.S. citizen. Wow, what a powerful thought! When her family and friends see her for the first time it will be at the exact moment she becomes a U.S. Citizen! This is so special it is just a blessing to think about.

This is our second to the last night but for most of our group it is their last night. So, at Lucy's "American Food" place tonight we had a big congratulations and going away dinner party.

Water beetles, sandworms, and baby turtles-oh my!

At dinner a couple of nights ago we walked into a fancy restaurant and basically most of their main dishes were alive and greeted us in the lobby. The lobby was full of displays of the live foods that they would cook for you in their dishes. There were a few kinds of live worms including one with a sign that said "Sandworms"- there were thousands of them crawling around on top of each other. There were live snails. There were live black Water Beetles in one large bowl and a display area with live baby turtles in little individual plastic crates. And there were many tanks of water with some cool things in them like live Oysters, live Scallops, live crabs, live lobsters, etc but several seafood items I did not recognize. I think a sea slug type creature was in one of the thanks. I guess you have to be really careful if you are just walking in off the street without a guide like we had.

I forgot to mention in the medical examination day blog that Noelle is 17.7lbs and a little over 27 inches long- fyi.

Today we had "the phone call" from our guide at around 12:30pm local time that said "Mr. and Mrs. Howard your travel Visa for Noelle Weifen is approved- congratulations! That is AWESOME!!! Without this we could still have to raise Noelle- but it would have to be in Red China... and that ain't going to work if I may use my Texan.

Tomorrow around 4:00pm we are sworn in at the U.S. Consulate. Unfortunately cameras are not allowed in that facility. This will be a mass swearing in of probably 60 people at once. We basically pledge to be good adoptive parents. Our guide said, "Whatever they say - just say yes!" Ummm- yah I don't think we are going to argue with him on that one.

Today we had a group baby picture on the famous red couch at the White Swan. Everyone has their picture taken on the red couch- its a China adoption tradition just like staying at the White Swan. (there are actually like 5 of them) Noelle got to sit right in the middle. Most of the babies were crying and some of them, like Noelle, were screaming. However she distinguished herself by being the only one who threw herself on her back right in the middle of the photo taking. What a little toot! We also had a group photo of all the families which turned out great.

I am going to show some of the local street shopping as well as these formal photos and some others.

"Daddy Spots"

It has been neat to see the transformation of Noelle that has happened in just a week. She no longer screams and cries every time we leave her side for a minute to go to the bathroom, change clothes, or some other task. She is getting more trusting. She has also learned to be spoon fed. We don't think she had done that before and she is now quite good at it. I am also enjoying the new "daddy spots" on my shirts. A daddy spot is usually a food, drool, or nose-based splotch where she puts her head and wipes her nose or mouth on me and on my shirt sleeve; these are the tell-tale signs that I am the daddy of a baby! Its great stuff.

Another wonderful part of the transformation has happened in us. Today we were talking and suddenly noticed a very new psychological phenomenon that we did not expect. We realized that we don't even see our little girl as being Chinese, we just see our sweet girl Noelle. We were shocked to realize that today. We LOVE that she is Chinese, are very proud of that fact, and think she is beautiful, but we just don't see any differences anymore. Its beyond that it doesn't matter (which is also true)- but its more than that. We really have to focus on that fact to realize it now. We just see our daughter. I'm not being idealistic, cheesy, or contrived with this, it is this interesting transformation that has happened in our minds in such a transforming way. It is really amazing and hard to explain- and we like it!

This is a neat picture of what happens when we come to Christ for salvation. There is total acceptance, total forgiveness, and total love and affection. He doesn't even see us for what we used to be or what we have done in the past. He "casts our sins into the sea of his forgetfulness" and remembers them no more. The Bible talks about us being adopted as sons into his family. Seeing our closeness to Noelle those adoption verses have a very rich meaning now. Once we come to the Lord by repenting and turning to him completely we are adopted and our past doesn't even matter to him and we don't have to worry about it. Adoption makes the child really yours and this is the case spiritually when we allow God to come into our lives. If Jamie and I in our weakness and limited capacity are able to bond in this amazing way imagine how we bond with the Lord when we come to him. Imagine how he rejoices in our adoption as sons with his great capacity to love. Imagine.

Yesterday our new friends from Arlington had a friend come into town to visit them for the week. She teaches English in North East China (I am keeping this vague to protect her). She told us about the underground "house church" movement in China (she attends one- they can barely fit in their current house, it is in overflow) and how there are many who are hungry for God who simply cannot learn about the Lord and study the Bible without fear of government reprisals and prison time. Sharing your faith is illegal. She told how she teaches English in various classes and is living in China for a year. She takes opportunities to share the Gospel with people in discreet ways and some people have come to Christ. She told how one underground church baptized someone she had shared the Lord with. He was an older man and he was baptized in near-freezing water because they did not have heated water. They would rather get sick in freezing water and risk being put in jail rather than not have Jesus. Her story made me feel so encouraged but so humbled. I'd like to do so much more than I do to share with others. We have so much freedom of religion and speech here that others in the world simply do not have. (you should see the police and others constantly watching all of us- they are everywhere and you become more and more aware of them every day and we have heard some stories of ridiculous examples of needless repression and control by the government- ask me later if you want to hear a couple of them) Lord help me to do better in using our freedoms to share with others- and thank you for it.

Today someone in one of the travel families was talking with our guide and learned that the people who are cleaning my hotel room or holding the elevator door open for me are paid around $48 USD per month. This is so sad I can't talk about it - and to think that is richer than those villagers we saw.. Pray for China with us. Freedom and democracy will give religious, speech, and economic freedom to these people.

Process update: Tomorrow (Monday - by the way we are 14 hours ahead of Texas time as an fyi so I am writing this at 11:17pm on Sunday night and for you I am writing this at 9:17am on Sunday morning) our guides take Noelle's passport and a bunch of U.S. government paperwork to the consulate for us and get her Visa! We have to stay in our room starting at noon because we have to be by the phone in case there are any problems. China adoption is so huge now with Americans (you have to think a dent must be being made in the need!) that the consulate can't handle all of us Americans coming in there so only the guides go now and bring our paperwork. Tuesday we are going to go to a U.S. consulate "swearing in" ceremony. I don't know exactly what I am swearing in for but I think it is that we will be good adoptive parents etc. I'll let you know.

We are scheduled to depart Guangzhou to Tokyo at 8:30am on Thursday via China Eastern Air. That flight is around 4 hours. Then we have a 7 HOUR layover in Tokyo (hurray..). Then we fly 11 hours from Tokyo to DFW via American and arrive at 3:40pm Texas time on Thursday. We tried to change our flight to Wednesday hoping something had changed since we last tried- nothing could be done. That's tough because we miss Maddie so much, we miss all our family and friends and ummm..... can't stop talking about Tex Mex. .... guilty!

Last thing: Check out the December 8th post again- now that I now how to use this system and add more than one picture I updated December 8th with 1 more photo of Tiananmen square (with the single tower) and then a bunch of the forbidden city (where the Emperor used to live) and the Summer Palace. Enjoy!

Palm Trees and Paradise!

Wow, Guangzhou is awesome and so is this hotel. The Guandong province we are in right now is actually even further South than the Jiangxi province we just left. This province faces the Southern coast of China. We have palm trees everywhere and a nice breeze. The weather is great. The hotel is unbelievable, I'll post some example pics of the interior. According to a Chinese business newspaper China has begun to embrace Christmas at least from a standpoint of capitalizing on it. They made 8.1billion Yuan from Christmas last year. This success must be well-known because our hotel and the surrounding businesses are all decorated and emphasizing Christmas. Neat. Breakfast was very Americanized and delicious. Everywhere around the hotel are shops catering to Westerners. You can get baby clothes and kids clothes made from silk or cotton, paintings, have your name written in Chinese on various products, you can get bracelets, jewelry, jade, pearls, amazing carved stone chess sets, Chinese wall hangings, Chinese boxes, dozens of different hand-painted porcelain items such as tea cups, tea sets, vases, and more. Everything is reasonably priced and somewhat negotiable. Jamie and I did some more shopping today and were able to pick up a bunch of things without breaking the bank too badly.

Shamian island where we are staying has a Western European architecture style- it is very cosmopolitan looking. Lining the street are palm trees and neat statues that were apparently put in 2 years ago to please tourists, it worked- they're neat. I'll show one. There are shops below large buildings and in the middle of the street is a narrow but long park. Kids, adults, and seniors congregate in groups in the park. In the morning you will see adults practicing Tai Chi which is a non-violent martial art they use just for exercise. Others stand in rows and in uniform precision dance to music they bring along in a boom box. It is so neat to see all the activity. I saw some seniors actually exercising and stretching by leaning on some of the kids play equipment in the park. One older lady actually hung from the monkey bars as part of her exercise and stretching. It is so interesting how these people love to congregate outside together in social circles to exercise and talk together. We found a cool Western hamburger joint called "Lucy's" that is famous with Americans who come in and after we enjoyed that feast we saw in another nearby park some people ballroom dancing outside under an awning to some music they brought along. Just fascinating!

Today we had an early morning of going to an adoption medical center to get Noelle examined as a pre-Visa requirement. We also got her picture taken as part of that process. We were able to pretty much take it easy today, Jamie even had a little nap.

Noelle is doing well, she is totally recognizing her name now and she is finally turning over from stomach to back. She is still struggling with having "tummy time" which is developmentally important but we are trying to just make that happen anyway. Since she just sat in a walker all her life there are going to be delays we just have to work through. Overall we have been pretty blessed with few of the delays though. Her speech could be delayed as well since she only started hearing English a week ago, we'll see. We are working with her a lot. She loves to be around adults and kids. We got to have some more play time with her friend Lilly today. Lilly is the daughter of a Christian couple we met who live near us in Arlington! There are two other couples who are adopting along with us who live locally in Fort Worth and Carrollton.

When we first got Noelle it would take her more than 30 minutes to drink a bottle. Jamie had this very sad "hunch" that since this was the only way Noelle could be held by an adult she purposely learned to drink slowly. This was devastating to think that this could be true- so sad to think she would have to learn to drink her bottle slowly to get any attention. Well, she now is held all the time and is drinking her bottle in 10 minutes. Jamie's guess was right, this is so sad that she just had to survive like that but I am so glad that we got her at 9 months so she didn't have to deal with a lack of attention any longer.

Tomorrow we go to the pearl market since some of the couples want to buy pearls and then we are going to another porcelain shop.

Hey by the way the shots of water are from our window!!!

Arrived in Guangzhou

Ok, I was going to title this "Terror in the skies" but Jamie said that it would be a mistake due to the current state of international terrorism. Here is what happened: today we left Nanchang for our final stop in Guangzhou, the capital of the Guangdong province (sounds like guacamole). It was an all afternoon/evening just to take the 1 hour flight. We had a super-full flight and it was about 70% "foreigners" (Americans) with their new babies from the Jiangxi province. It was heartwarming to see (though you've never heard a daycare as loud as this). Our guide Samson Wu (most or all Chinese people who work with English-speaking people take a pseudonym which is the case for Samson) was sitting in front of Jamie and I on the airplane and left his window seat to use the restroom. The man in the middle seat was Chinese and in his early 40's. He was asleep. This man was really sprawled out apparently so Samson asked him in the nicest way to allow him back in. The man was extremely agitated and began directing a lot of profanity at Samson in Chinese. Samson tried to stay calm and reason with the man but nothing worked. Things got loud and 2 female flight attendants came over to try to console this man. For a minute he settled down but sixty seconds later things really escalated and he folded up his thick paperback book into a tight baton shaped weapon and was trying to shove it in Samson's face and I think he was trying to swing at him as well. Samson was trying to restrain him and in an elevated voice tell him to knock it off. Things notched up one more notch and since I was sitting behind this man I shouted "NO" at him and restrained his left arm from punching Samson. Many people in the plane stood up and were about to rush him and the flight attendants came back over to talk him down and brought a man from the cockpit to discuss. The whole situation was over a selfish hothead who wanted to sleep on the plane. It was really scary because we had Noelle right there in the mix. Wow. We prayed about this and let go of it and nothing further happened. The flight attendants allowed the man to switch seats. I'll tell you what if that happened in America the guy would be in handcuffs.

Everyone who is from the United States and adopts in China ends up in Guangzhou at the end of the process which is the location of the U.S. Consulate. Everyone who adopts in China stays in the White Swan Hotel. It is amazing. Our room has carpet plus marble floors, maple with black inlaid trim on all the wood surfaces. I could go on and on about this place! It is 5-star and if it was anywhere else it might not be affordable. (Actually room service is still nearly not affordable- and I'm not telling what we just paid.) There are multiple restaurants and rich onsite shops with some amazing Chinese clothes and other things you can buy. Marble and rich wood are everywhere as well as beautiful painted gold Chinese screens, murals, and paintings. It is just beautiful. We came into our room which was chilly for once and didn't smell like smoke! Oh my gosh! And bonus we have one of only two rooms with a waterfront view. Praise the Lord! People who have been here before have told me to be ready for a suprise at breakfast because the hotel is constantly filled with adoptive families who practically run the place. It is neat to see that so much adoption is going on and neat to be part of some China adoption traditions. You can check the hotel out at: http://www.whiteswanhotel.com/eng/Public/index.asp

Guangzhou is apparently very Westernized with six Starbucks (WOW) and other American chains. We are on an island called "Shaiman Island". We are getting an early start tomorrow. We have to go through some medical tests with Noelle. We also have to go get our pictures taken as part of this process. Sunday will be a big shopping day! (which is fine because I hear you can skip a mortgage payment!!). I know there is a U.S. Consulate visit and I am not sure which day that is but we get Noelle's Visa (ok guys don't worry about me I mean a travel Visa not Visa/Mastercard- I have a few years to avoid that one). There is also planned a child blessing event at a Buddhist temple which we won't be attending.

Ok, so a couple of observations from our trip so far (I had more tidbits and I just can't remember them at the moment). First of all it is easy to get your laundry done here and fairly cheap. When you get it back (at least from our first place) it is all in very fancy "crackly" plastic bags with the garment item folded up. They then hand-sew on each clothing item a little tag. You actually have to cut it off. Fancy!

Hopefully, there will be less clothes hanging from the windows and skyrise clothes lines here in Guangzhou- I have high expectations. Hopefully there will be no carcasses or meat of any kind hanging from windows and clothes lines. It really makes you wonder, I mean has a young Chinese man who partied too hard the night before ever accidentally grabbed the wrong thing off the clothes line in the morning? It would be really embarrassing to get to work and realized you wore a ham steak to work. Scary!

Also, a word about our airline we just flew on "China Southern Air". There are several airlines in China such as: China Eastern Air, China Southern Air, Hainan Airlines, and Air China. This "China Southern Air" was a Boeing 737 which looked halfway safe- I mean it probably has oil changes like clockwork every single year!

Noelle update: Wow am I getting in trouble. Little "Tooty" won't go to mom- just dad. (I mean can you blame her? Oops sorry!) Anyway, I know it will pass and Jamie says that Maddie did this as well at 9 months. She's doing well overall. She likes to play a lot on the bed with us and we are trying hard to teach her Maddie's name as well as other family (not there yet). I am 100% positive she gave me a kiss on the arm tonight as I was putting her to bed. I was cradling her head and like 3 times she craned her neck up and gave me a wet kiss right on the arm. It was so sweet!

Love to all.